Mainebiz

V O L . X X I X N O. X I I I L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N / W E S T E R N M A I N E Bethel's spice merchant In Bethel, Beth Weisberger is a teacher-turned-entre- preneur who boomeranged back to Maine in 2019. Born in Augusta, she grew up in Winthrop and was teaching high school science in New York City public schools when she started Gneiss Spice as a side hustle in 2009. en living in a Brooklyn apartment with a jam- packed spice cabinet, she improvised a honeycomb- like rack of containers with magnetic lids that was an organizational game-changer. "We had a tiny kitchen with no storage space but high ceilings, so the only way to store things was to go up vertically," she recalls. "I had seen tin canisters with magnetic bottoms before and thought that I could do something with an airtight glass jar." From a canning website she ordered a hexagon- shaped honey jar, then experimented with magnets of different strengths until she found one to hold the heavy glass jar to the fridge. After designing her own spice system, she filled orders from family and friends, then turned her hobby into a business. She opened an Etsy store in 2009, started selling on Amazon in 2012 and created her own Shopify website in 2016 with $14,000 raised from a crowdfunding cam- paign. e former geology major named her company (whose name rhymes with "nice") after a type of metamorphic rock found in Maine, and because "rock people just like puns." Today, she runs Gneiss Spice from her home in Bethel, a town of 2,623 in Oxford County that also happens to be the location of the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum. She employs a remote workforce of six employees, selling jars and spice systems along with more than 300 herbs, spices, salts, popcorn seasonings and sprinkles. Weisberger and her husband also own a local cinema that closed for a year during the pandemic, when business took off for Gneiss Spice to feed the surge in home cooking and baking. Today, 92% of Gneiss Spice customers are out of state, led by orders from California, Oregon, Utah, New York and Florida, with the rest in Canada and other countries. Weisberger was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration Maine District Office as 2019's home-based business of the year and partici- pated in an SBA business development program for emerging leaders last year. Among other require- ments, participating businesses must have annual revenues of at least $250,000. "Beth Weisberger took a problem many of us have and came up with not only an innovative, but also gor- geous, solution," says Diane Sturgeon, district director for the SBA's Maine District Office. "She's created a business with a conscience that is focused on not only sustainability but success, and she's proven that it can be done in rural Maine." Retreat center in West Paris Western Maine is also home to two small businesses run by retired military veterans. One is retired Air Force Major Jeffrey Holley, an Idaho native who served in the military for more than 25 years and whose road trip with Koda, a Siberian rescue Husky, led him to Maine. He settled in West Paris, buying an 11-acre property where he now lives with his son, daughter- in-law and granddaughter, and founded an outdoor center called Ripple Retreat. e concept was inspired by his best friend in the Army who was killed in Iraq "and left a ripple in my life to make a difference," Holley says. "I'm a recover- ing alcoholic and I want to open up an area that is positive and makes positive ripples in the world." He'll host a women's retreat for free this month, and the plan is to host day and evening groups start- ing in September 2024. Set up as a for-profit enter- prise, Ripple Retreat has pledged to donate 75% of the profits to the town of West Paris and to one local charity a year, starting with the Norway-based Pink Feather Foundation. "When I started this business, everyone said, 'Why not [launch] a nonprofit?'" Holley says. "But that would require having board members, and I want to be able to decide to give away as much money as I want. I hope this actually catches on and sets an example for the community." He's so community-focused, that he's even missed a few business milestones, "which reflects favorably on him," says Holley's SCORE mentor, Ted Hatch. Last year, Holley organized a benefit concert to finance construction of a new house for a neighbor whose abode was destroyed by fire. Holley's plans for Ripple Retreat include renting out a six-bedroom house to guests and hosting wed- dings. e former globetrotter says he's felt at home in West Paris since neighbors pitched in last June with the benefit concert and building a stage. "e humanity and sense of community here makes it an honor to call West Paris my new home," he says. "I hope to only enhance the community with my and my family's presence, our ripple." Laser focused in Turner In Turner, Dan Fitzsimmons is another business owner with a military background. e retired Army helicopter pilot, who has grad- uate degrees in homeland security and terrorism and a doctorate in strategic security, runs a center » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E F O C U S Former high school science teacher Beth Weisberger runs Gneiss Spice from her home in Bethel. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY I'm not in this to get rich, but to help other people. — Dan Fitzsimmons 24/7 Defense Training in Turner J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 2 3 14

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